The present invention relates to an article vending machine for normal use on a table top or the like. This type of vending equipment is used in small offices and canteen-type environments and is not meant to compete with the large, floor model vending machines. However, it is just as desirable to have not only as large and varied a selection of product as possible in the table top unit, but also to provide for a product first-in, first-out arrangement whereby the product which is first placed in the unit will be vended out first, thereby insuring freshness and quality of product. Other requirements of the marketplace relate to a minimal size of the unit, a minimal weight, and a maximum anti-theft provision therefor.
Previous attempts to satisfy all of the aforementioned minimum and maximum requirement have resulted in table top units which are unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. When such unit is provided with first-in, first-out helical feeder coils on a pair of shelves, but with the shelves placed in a horizontal position, the unit housing is of a square-box like design with not only a waste of inner space, but wherein the outside dimensions are satisfactorily large. Additionally, the shelf arrangements have fixed trough and coil dimensions with a fixed type, size and number of products to be delivered.
Another such table top vending unit known in the prior art comprises a large rotary-type product storage wheel, with product available upon coin-permitted opening of the front of the cabinet in front of the product storage compartment after the wheel has been rotated to place the product at the front of the unit. This type machine is likewise very large, bulky and heavy, with an overly complicated and expensive product delivery arrangement. Furthermore, product which is first in is not necessarily vended first out, such that certain of the product may remain in the machine for an unduly long period of time, resulting in loss of quality of the product.
The present invention is directed at overcoming these and other unsatisfactory attempts at fulfilling the requirements of the marketplace and of the manufacturing economies for an inexpensive, compact and lightweight table top vending machine having a maximum of fresh product vending capabilities with a minimum of theft problems.